Nathan MacKinnon quickly made history last night as his Avalanche got off to a hot start in a 5-1 beatdown of the Oilers. The Avalanche scored four goals in the first period, two of which came from Valeri Nichushkin. Nathan MacKinnon had two assists on those goals, and that helped him achieve a franchise record.
Those two assists helped MacKinnon reach 140 points on a season, which is a new Colorado Avalanche single-season franchise record. He passed Peter Stastny’s 1981-82 season (139) with the Quebec Nordiques.
“It’s amazing,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of MacKinnon reaching 140. “You think of all the amazing players who have come through this organization, the seasons they have, the success they’ve had as individuals and as a team. To be at the top of that list, I think it’s incredible.”
“Yeah, it’s cool,” MacKinnon told The Denver Post. “(He’s) definitely a legend. Peter Stastny is one of the best to ever play. He had some crazy seasons. I think he had a lot better seasons than me overall, this is just one. I think it’s a team accomplishment. A lot of guys helped me out along the way.”
The Avalanche also got goals from Mikko Rantanen and Josh Manson against the Oilers.
Colorado played all of its healthy players except for goalie Alexandar Georgiev, opting to give him a week off before the Avalanche meet the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Previewing the Stanley Cup Playoffs: Colorado Avalanche vs. Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets are a tough matchup for the Avalanche.
Winnipeg will be coming to the series fresh. With their playoff seed set, the Jets opted to rest many of their stars in their final regular season game. This included their top five scorers: Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
The Jets have been playing strong lately and recently destroyed the Avalanche 7-0. Similar to the Avalanche’s victory last night, Winnipeg put four goals on Colorado in the first period during that blowout.
Jets have a strong defense and good goalie in Connor Hellebuyck. If those two strengths of the team are humming, they could give the Avalanche a run for their money.
The Athletic reports that the odds for the series are close to 50-50 with a slight edge towards the Avalanche. The report states that the most likely outcome is an Avalanche victory in six games. The Athletic agrees that if Winnipeg is going to win the series, it will be on the back of their defense and goaltender. The Jets’ main advantages are a 93.7% save percentage (compared to Colorado’s 90.9%) and 1.78 goals allowed per game (compared to Colorado’s 2.59).
While the Winnipeg Jets are not considered to be the strongest contenders to win the Stanley Cup, they should prove to be a hard team to knock out. If the Colorado Avalanche want to make a deep playoff push this year, they cannot overlook the Winnipeg Jets.
As long as Connor MacKinnon keeps playing the way he has, it’s easy to believe that the Avalanche can beat any team in the NHL.
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